The reach of digital art now is wide. To use Herbert W. Franke’s term - the “Instrumentarium”, [1] that unique collection of equipment and instruments for the practice of machine and electronic arts, has expanded massively since the 1950s as have the numbers of artists working in this field. Just how much so and its resulting impact on the artworld, was demonstrated by an exceptional event held this year that celebrated seven decades of developments in machine art - the Generative Art Summit: From Camera to Artificial Intelligence 1954-2024 was held in Berlin July 2-6, 2024, at the Akademie der Künste Hanseatenweg (Academy of Arts), organised by art meets science - Foundation Herbert W. Franke. The Foundation was established in 2022 to honour the life’s work of the visionary Herbert W. Franke. The Summit invited about 70 guests of honour and gathered international participants to consider the origins, current state and potential future of an art form that many argue is now finally coming into its own. With more than 350 attendees (speakers and delegates), from America, Australia, Europe and Asia, the Foundation’s aim of fostering dialogue about the history and practice of generative art across generations and the globe was achieved with great success.

As will be known to Leonardo readers, Herbert W. Franke (1927-2022) was one of the great pioneers of an art made with machines and algorithms, striving to find rules that could be applied to aesthetics. A polymath, Franke’s career spanned physics, academia, photography and machine art, algorithmic art, exhibition curation, writing of texts, plays and science fiction novels, speleology and the founding, together with colleagues in 1979, of the Ars Electronica in Linz. Additionally, Franke was one of the first to start documenting the history of computer art with his ground-breaking book Computer Graphics - Computer Art (first published in English 1971), which helped to define the nascent field. He was an honorary editor and regular contributor to Leonardo from the very beginning.

The Summit was organised with great finesse by historian of science Dr Susanne Paech, widow of Franke, and head of the Foundation. Each invited speaker had a connection to Franke – artist friends and colleagues, people who worked or corresponded with him as researchers. The younger artists met him in the latter years via social media or discovered his (popular and successful) Math Art NFT drop in 2021. Active and curious to the end, Franke was pleased to encounter a community of generative artists on X, who were continuing to explore some of the ideas he pioneered seventy years ago. As for myself, I corresponded with Franke about an article I was writing in 2012-13 and I recall his generosity in allowing me to be the first to publish a work from his Intarsia series, programmed with the software system Mathematica for the ‘Demonstration Project’ of Stephen Wolfram. [2] This was ahead of publication in the journal Grundlagenstudien aus Kybernetik und Geisteswissenschaften; “Stetigkeit – ein ästhetisches Ordnungsprinzip” (Continuity - an Aesthetic Principle of Order). I was honoured to participate in the Summit, helping to recover some of the forgotten work of British pioneers of creative computation, specifically George Mallen and his early work with the Computer Arts Society from 1968 to 1973. [3

Enormously productive from a networking perspective, the Summit was also valuable for encountering new art and hearing from the wide range of people working with it. Drawing together artists, theorists, historians, curators, collectors, representatives from museums and galleries - specialists in AI art, NFTs and Crypto art, moving image, interactive art, dance and performance, poetry and visual text, as well as historic computer art, the five-day event demonstrated the wide range of practices coming under the banner of ‘generative art’ today. Rather than futile attempts to pin down a single definition, this Summit embraced the sheer exuberance, vitality and diversity of approaches, processes, methods and techniques that involve machines, systems and digital computing from its origins to the present day.

Perhaps the Summit’s greatest achievement was the facilitation of participants from different sectors to debate and exchange information in this area. Particularly interesting was the mix of generations, curated by Paech, who were able to meet and be inspired by each other. Younger artists presented their innovative artworks and performances in reference to the history of computer art. They were noticeably thrilled to engage with the more senior members of the community – included in the Summit were pioneers of the medium from the 1960s and 70s, among them Hein Gravenhorst, Frieder Nake, Hans Dehlinger and Joan Truckenbrod. The older generation was excited to find the younger demographic’s enthusiasm for an art form, now over half a century old, that in its infancy had barely registered in the wider artworld. Ernest Edmonds, a British first-generation pioneer of this field since 1969 said, “One of the best things about the Summit was talking with younger artists, saying how much I admired their work and them saying how much they agreed with what I had said. A true coming together of the generations.” This view was echoed by Truckenbrod, working with the digital medium since the early 1970s, who called the Summit an “insightful synthesis of diverse perspectives.” She continued, “Particularly exciting for pioneering digital artists was discussions by younger artists - stating ‘they were standing on the shoulder of these pioneers’; I was [especially] honoured to hear this during the presentation of the dancers [Ania Catherine and Dejha Ti, known as Operator].”

As probably the longest pioneer in attendance at the Summit, it was appropriate that Frieder Nake started the presentations with a rousing lecture in which he pointed out that “art is always generative, or it is not at all.” Another of the first founders of computer art, the American A. Michael Noll, thrilled conference goers with a video presentation from his home in New York. This was a valuable opportunity to hear first-hand about his experiences creating some of the first computer art at Bell Labs from 1963. He said this non-official work took place part-time, “because it was fun!”

Throughout the duration, artists talked about their work, practices and influences. Additionally, several art historians put developments into historic context and panels were regularly convened on stage for discussions. The first day, under the title the “Hall of Fame” - was focusing to the pioneers of the 20th century who laid the foundations for following generations.  As contemporary witnesses, they reported on the beginnings of an art form that for decades developed largely in a ghetto of traditional art. All of them have opened up with their work completely new techniques for art, and some have even helped to develop them. Day two was dedicated to the 21st century, with generative art exploring blockchain, Web3. And AI. There were many memorable moments among the 32 of presentations, too numerous to go into detail here. The intention with this review is to give a flavour of the extensive event. Several strands were brought together including a recognition of the history and legacy of pioneers, as well as a celebration of emerging practices and the artworld’s new interest in generative art.

It is emblematic of the time we live in, that this sort of work now has far greater reach and broader acceptance. Edmonds highlighted this change in attitude, that became clearer as the Summit progressed, when he said, “One of the big differences between the experiences of the ‘pioneers’ and the younger artists is that we had to operate outside the established art world and now everything connected to NFTs or AI is big news. In the early days, apart from important exceptions such as Cybernetic Serendipity, we made our own opportunities to show and discuss our work.” The Summit included many examples of historic work that was going on outside the system from the late 1960s through to the 1980s. In the past five years or so there has been a serious shift, rectifying some of this underrepresentation, that would have been unimaginable to people working back in the 1970s – many of whom felt overlooked by galleries and excluded from the art market.

On the historical side, Margit Rosen of ZKM gave a talk about electric analogue computers and how one of Franke’s early inspirations was Ben Laposky’s specially modified oscilloscopes. Art Historian Grant D. Taylor’s presentation pointed out, among other things, the burden of the future on these digital artists that does not happen within other mediums – oil painters are not continually asked to justify the latest polymer acrylics, for example.

Caroline Csuri, daughter of pioneer Charles (known as Chuck) Csuri, worked closely with her father throughout his career and gave some historical insights into his work. At the Ohio State University in 1966 Csuri sought the collaboration of programmer James Shaffer to create his first computer image. Csuri was also the first artist to be awarded a National Science Foundation grant, however he was told to keep it quiet, due to the controversy of linking science with art in those days. It was pioneers like Nake, Noll and Csuri who pushed open resistant doors for the current generation’s expansion upon their groundbreaking work.

The Croatian Tomislav Mikulic reported how he started to produce computer art movies in the early 1970s. William (Bill) Kolomyjec spoke about accessing computer systems at Michigan State University in 1973 and recounted meeting Franke in 1974, inspired by the book Computer Graphics - Computer Art.

Artist duo Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss talked about their multimedia work beginning in the eighties which involves self-developed interfaces – tools (mechanical or literal), that they use to make connections between people and machines. Another media artist duo Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau shared their recent interactive work inspired by biology which included portraits produced with their code of hundreds of digital flies that, like a living system, move around as pixels, before settling to form an image.

The upcoming personal computers of the 1980s were covered by Geoff Davis who discussed “Small but Beautiful 1980s Micro Computers as a Tool for Artists.”  William Latham, who also started working in the 1980s with A-Life and generative evolution in a British IBM interdisciplinary think tank, expounded on his ‘artist as gardener’ approach. Latham also joined in a discussion with Paech and Eric de Giuli, assistant professor of Physics at Toronto Metropolitan University to talk about “Being a Scientist and/or an Artist?”, and how aesthetics can co-exist with the rationality of science, upon which this art form is intrinsically intwined.

Of note was work that incorporated the body with the performative nature of digital and virtual artwork, for example Operator’s energy-infused presentation. Reeps One (Harry Yeff), artist and AI technologist specialising in voice, gave an amazing cross-modal performance of his signature beatbox vocal percussion technique. Poet Sasha Stiles read aloud from her 10-part generated poem The Orchid Cage, part of the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke Collection commissioned by the Foundation. Written and visualized in conjunction with Stiles’ AI-powered alter ego, Technelegy, it honors and tests Franke’s often mentioned assertion that the computer is a universal art machine, but using them to create poetry is undoubtedly the most difficult task of the computer in art. The poems had the entire hall audience on the edge of their seats, its power certainly made the hairs stand on end. Poetry was also performed by Ana Marie Caballero who read Pome, her work for the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke. This was another emotive experience, reminding the audience that, in Caballero’s word, “Poetry generates visceral introspection, which grows in importance in our increasingly outward-facing worlds.” [4] A panel with Caballero, Edmonds and artist Aaron Penne discussed the importance of communities in the reception of this art, including historic ones like the Computer Arts Society and contemporary ones found in social media and Web3.

In a panel moderated by me, “Woman in a Man’s World”, Truckenbrod and Mechthild Schmidt-Feist discussed the insight and persistence necessary to create artwork in a realm historically dominated by men’s perspective. Issues with preservation and conservation were discussed by Julia Staudach the co-founder of CryptoWiener pixel art, with Rosen and Sabine Himmelsbach, director of HEK, Basel. This is a particularly pertinent concern for an art that can be ephemeral or realised on equipment that dates rapidly. Paech led a panel about AI art where Himmelsbach provided some history including Harold Cohen, before Paech and Himmelsbach discussed artists’ use of AI together with artists Sougwen Chung and Mario Klingemann.

The commercial aspect of generative art today in the form of NFTs was considered by curator Anika Meier of Expanded Art who brought her extensive knowledge of the contemporary art market to two panels. She explained that the invention of the blockchain solved problems many artists had with physical art works by allowing more transparency, giving them a secure space to exhibit and a new mechanism for sales and collection, whilst avoiding expensive shipping and other costs. Meier conversed with artists Stefano Contiero, Marcel Schwittlick, Travess Smalley and Zancan about the shifting boarders of art today. Artists Ivona Tau, Wassim Alsindi, Ciphrd and Seth Goldstein, who all work with NFTs, gave opinions about the future of NFTs for art. The possibilities afforded artists by Web3 was discussed by artist and commentators Julia Schicker, with artists Aleksandra Jovanic, Sarah Ridgley and Jeff Davis. Schicker pointed out that it is now almost impossible to imagine contemporary generative art without blockchain. Further perspectives on the diversity of practices to be found in generative art today were provided by artist Jonas Lund, P1xelboy and a panel held by Clara Herrmann from the Akademie der Künste who talked with artists Anna Lucia, Alexander Grasser, and Bernhard Nissler, co-creator of CryptoWiener.

Le Random’s presentation was from the point of view of an organisation that collects, exhibits, and contextualises this art, including pioneers such as Nake and Analivia Cordeiro, as well as a younger generation. Attention was drawn to their ongoing Generative Art Timeline, which explores a 70,000-year history of generative art through hundreds of milestones, edited by Peter Bauman.

Another important highlight was the conversation between Paech and the collectors Michael and Anne Spalter. This was a rare personal view into their extensive collection (over 2,000 works) of historic and contemporary digital art. Anne Spalter, herself a significant artist, is represented in the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke Collection and has been an advocate of digital art for 30 years. From a time when no one cared about this work or wanted to collect it – initially they were even met with derision, the Spalters are now favourably impressed by the growth in curators and scholars. Indicative of the change in status of digital art is the fact that works from their collection are now regularly loaned to major museums and exhibitions internationally. Michael Spalter said that getting to hear the range of people speak at the Summit was “beyond a treat” and “miraculous for people who follow this field.”

An evening film programme was beautifully curated by Larry Cuba, pioneer of computer-generated film, and included 39 films by 33 artists. It opened with Franke’s Tanz der Elektronen (Dance of the Electrons),1958. Early animations were included by Stan VanDerBeek, Ken Knowlton, John Whitney Sr. and, from 1967, Charles Csuri’s Hummingbird and Tony Pritchet’s Flexipede – the first made in the USA and the second the first full computer animation made in Britain. Accompanied by excellent commentary from Cuba, it was marvellous to see films by Jane Veeder, Barbara Sykes, Ed Emshwiller, Rebecca Allen, John Lasseter, Chris Wedge and Paul Debevec to name just a few, presented on a big theatre screen where they looked outstanding. Several audience members mentioned there were films they had never encountered before, or only via clips on YouTube. The inclusion in the programme of Cuba’s own work – Two Space, for example, was also very well received - “Incredible”, posted Aaron Penne, “I had the great fortune to watch it in a theatre presented by Larry himself at the Generative Art Summit.”

The film night was rounded off with a presentation of Yoichiro Kawaguchi’s Wonderworlds in 3D. Computer animation pioneer Kawaguchi presented a selection of his spectacular animations, based on upon his GROWTH Model, a self-organizing approach to developing a formative algorithm of a complex life form, which he has been working with since 1982.

On the final evening of the Summit, a stage performance “Sandfiction 4K: The Orchid Cage”, based on Franke’s Sci-Fi novel The Orchid Cage was performed for the first time in English by artist group Kaleidolux. The imagery created by the sand painter was projected behind the performers on a large screen and corresponded with the rhythm and velocity of the sound as well as the density of the performance. Several attendees called this the highlight of the Summit, and a powerful culmination of ideas raised during the five days. Susanne Paech explained, “The event at the end of the Summit takes today’s controversial debate about whether AI can support artists even further in the future. Herbert’s parable raises the question of whether humans can create an artificial intelligence that will be a moral and all-encompassing happiness machine that fulfils people’s every wish and thus leads them into an evolutionary horror scenario.” This multimedia theatre production incorporated an actor, two musicians and a sand painter who interpreted Franke’s classic text about the evolution of mankind in a high-tech entertainment cyberworld. Dealing with issues of AI that are still being debated today, Franke’s 1961 novel asked “What are the machines supposed to do? What they are programmed to do... but what if they determine themselves?” A new English translation of The Orchid Cage was published by Springer to coincide with this event. The imagery created by the sand painter was projected behind the performers on a large screen and corresponded with the rhythm and velocity of the sound as well as the density of the performance. For Truckenbrod, “The ephemeral and fleeting nature of the sand paintings reflected the multiple realms of digital artworks presented at the Summit, from artificial virtual realities to artworks with a materiality and a physical presence.”

The conference programme was concluded with a day excursion to the Institut Heidersberger in Wolfsburg Castle and viewing of the Code - Kunst - Konstructionen exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg. A tour of the studio of photographer Heinrich Heidersberger and demonstration of his “Rhythmograph” of 1953 was given by his son, the artist Benjamin Heidersberger, founder and CEO of the institute (who had given a presentation at the Summit two days before). Physical and digital art works were on view in the gallery. Truckenbrod commented on the importance of “changing the context of generative art from the academic setting to the art gallery, and to experience the trajectory of this artwork.” Physical works from the Franke & Friends Collection included artists Frank Malina, Vera Molnar, Frieder Nake, Casey Reas, Sylvia Roubaud, and others, from a collection built up by Franke and Paech, from their global network with these artists from the 1950s onwards. Digital works came from the extensive Tribute to Herbert W. Franke Collection. In 2022 around 80 generative artists, photographers, poets, and virtual world builders working today were invited by the Foundation to honor Franke’s life and work. Artists included Kevin Abosh, Christian Bök, Sophia Crespo, to name only a few. The proceeds from the Tribute support development, preservation and public access to Franke’s art. These digital works were also on view on a screen in the lobby of the Akademie der Künste and many of the artists represented in the Collections participated in the Summit.

Franke believed that with the invention of the computer a dialogue was made possible that opened “completely new forms of artistic expression by allowing the audience to intervene in the aesthetic structure.” [5] The Summit excelled in demonstrating some of these new forms and the joys and challenges of working with them. The fact that it did this in the real world was a delight, as audience member, art and technology researcher Linda Candy, said, “the power of direct communication, the warmth and immediacy of human-to-human communication, cannot be underestimated.” The Herbert W. Franke Foundation is to be commended for facilitating the important recovery of an underrepresented artform, making it accessible to the growing community of thousands of artists working in generative art today, whilst continuing the legacy into the future. As Caroline Csuri shared with me, “All artists learn from art history. The Foundation’s program of cross-generation exchange is pivotal in the educational understanding of current and future generations.” Young artist Licia He echoed many when she posted, “Many thanks to the organizers for bringing us together. I hope there are more like this!

More information about the Summit, the Franke & Friends Collection and the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke Collection is available on the Foundation’s websites: https://art-meets-science.io/en/ and https://www.tribute-hwf.com/.

The recordings of the Generative Art Summit, plus additional artists’ statements are available to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2wu3n5K2D6ypn3x6MvosUc03rIx6rZRt

End Notes

[1] Franke, Herbert W. “The Expanding Medium: The Future of Computer Art.” Leonardo 20, no. 4 (1987): 335–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/1578528.

[2] Mason, Catherine “Kaleidoscopic Calculations”, IT Now, British Computer Society, February 2013 http://www.catherinemason.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/image-of-the-month-feb-13.pdf.

[3] Mason, Catherine (ed), Creative Simulations: George Mallen and the Early Computer Arts Society, Springer 2024 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50620-8.

[4] “Poetry at the Edge of the Human”, Right Click Save, 4 July 2022 https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/poetry-at-the-edge-of-the-human#:~:text=It's%20a%20rare%20gift%20to,our%20increasingly%20outward%2Dfacing%20worlds.

[5] Franke, Herbert W. “Gesellschaftliche Aspekte der Computerkunst” (Social Aspects of Computer Art), Bit International 7: Dialogue with the Machine, Zagreb 1971 19-26. [quote translated by author]